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Tinkercad
™

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Tinkercad
™

by Shaun C. Bryant
Autodesk Certified Professional

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Tinkercad™ For Dummies®
Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2018932639

ISBN 978-1-119-46441-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-46448-8 (ePub); 978-1-119-46447-1 (ePDF)

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Contents at a Glance
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Part 1: Getting Started with Tinkercad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

CHAPTER 1: Exploring 3D Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER 2: Introducing Tinkercad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
CHAPTER 3: Taking a Tour of Tinkercad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
CHAPTER 4: Exploring the User Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
CHAPTER 5: Exploring 3D Tools in Tinkercad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Part 2: Creating a Simple Nameplate for Your Office. . . . . . . 63

CHAPTER 6: Creating the Baseplate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
CHAPTER 7: Giving the Baseplate Depth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

CHAPTER 8: Adding Your Name as Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

CHAPTER 9: Cutting Holes to Mount the Nameplate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Part 3: Building Your First Skyscraper, in Miniature . . . . . . 115

CHAPTER 10: Creating the Building Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
CHAPTER 11: Developing the Ground Floor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
CHAPTER 12: Copying the Floors as You Build. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
CHAPTER 13: Adding the Roof to Stop the Rain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
CHAPTER 14: The Sky’s the Limit: Adding a Helipad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Part 4: Making It Happen: 3D Printing Your Designs . . . . . . 159

CHAPTER 15: Getting Started with 3D Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
CHAPTER 16: 3D Printing Selected Shapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
CHAPTER 17: STL Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
CHAPTER 18: OBJ Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
CHAPTER 19: SVG Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Part 5: The Part of Tens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

CHAPTER 20: Ten Great 3D Printing Materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
CHAPTER 21: Ten Great 3D Printers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
CHAPTER 22: Ten 3D Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Foolish Assumptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Icons Used in This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Beyond the Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Where to Go from Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

PART 1: GETTING STARTED WITH TINKERCAD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

CHAPTER 1: Exploring 3D Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
What Is 3D Modeling?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Comparing 3D to 2D Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Discovering Model Representation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Looking at the Modeling Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Creation of a 3D model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Exploring different modeling techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Recognizing the 3D Model Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Exploring 3D Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Using 3D Printed Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Prosthetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Rapid prototyping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Low volume manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Bespoke manufacturing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Dentistry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Using Tinkercad in 3D Modeling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

CHAPTER 2: Introducing Tinkercad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Visiting the Tinkercad Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Creating a Tinkercad Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Logging in to Your New Account. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Launching a New Tinkercad Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

CHAPTER 3: Taking a Tour of Tinkercad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Viewing Recent Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Choosing Options and Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
‘Tinkering’ with Tinkercad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Finding the Right Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Tweeting on Twitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Browsing the Gallery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Reading the Tinkercad Blog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

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 CHAPTER 4: Exploring the User Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Venturing Away from the Start screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Viewing the Tinkercad ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Using the Viewing Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Working with the Tinkercad Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Speeding Things Up by Using Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

CHAPTER 5: Exploring 3D Tools in Tinkercad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Copy and Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Duplicate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Hide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Show All. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Ungroup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Align. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Flip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Workplane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Ruler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Tinkercad Basic Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Community Shapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

PART 2: CREATING A SIMPLE NAMEPLATE

FOR YOUR OFFICE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
CHAPTER 6: Creating the Baseplate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Starting and Saving a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Setting Up Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Creating a Blank Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Choosing Public or Private Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Choosing Design Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
Deciding on Licensing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Using the Workplane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
Setting up your dimensions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Editing the grid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Using Basic Shapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Adding a box to the Workplane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Sizing your box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

CHAPTER 7: Giving the Baseplate Depth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Using the ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Working on Different Faces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Choosing a Shape for the Indent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Checking Object Position Using the Grid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

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